Letters
Silent hero
The other night at about 10 p.m., we were walking back home on E. Evergreen Avenue. We were surprised to see a man walking in the street with a plastic bag, bending over to pick up pieces of trash. We asked him what he was doing (although it was obvious). He said he did this every night. He described his route as starting at Wyndmoor station and working up different streets in the Hill. With unattractive skepticism, we asked him if he belonged to any special committee and was being paid. His answer was that he just did it because he wanted to.
It was such a humble answer and such an overwhelmingly unusual activity that I said he deserved recognition. (Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten his name.) I want him to send it to the Local so that you can all know that people like this still exist. He’s a rare unrecognized person and what he was doing voluntarily comes close to being miraculous today! That’s why I’m calling him a HERO.
Please send your name to the Local, special man, so we can all say thank you.
Mary Lee Lowry
Chestnut Hill
Job well done
On behalf of the Fairmount Park Commission, I want to thank the Chestnut Hill Local for the coverage that you gave to the AmeriCorps team that worked in the Wissahickon. You wrote a terrific story and the color photos were great!
The grant that Fairmount Park received from AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps was completed in June. During the seven-week grant period, corps members contributed more than 2,200 hours of service to Fairmount Park. Highlights of the project include: planting 830 trees and shrubs, improving 3,000 feet of trail and maintaining more than 1,400 trees. The team also had the opportunity to work with more than 500 community volunteers on these projects.
On June 28, Fairmount Park recognized the efforts of the NCCC at a picnic where the team was presented with a Liberty Bell and Proclamation from Mayor John Street proclaiming June 28 as AmeriCorps NCCC Day in Philadelphia.
Many thanks for your continued support of Fairmount Park.
Kate Lapszynski
Director, environment, stewardship and education division
Fairmount Park Commission
Move the market
My friend and neighbor, Jennifer Rezeli, made some excellent points about the contributions and efforts of the local farmers selling supremely fresh organic fruits on Winston Road. I absolutely agree that it is wonderful for shoppers to have the opportunity to buy their products. Further, I think it is important that people like Jen advocate for the small farms and their ability to market their products.
I encourage these entrepreneurs to take advantage of the many opportunities to rent space in the Farmers’ Market, or one of the Avenue’s empty storefronts to sell their products.
What I am opposed to is the long-term closing of a busy public street to accommodate private business — any private business (maybe some people would like to close Highland Avenue every Saturday morning to give Wawa an opportunity to display their products in the street, or let SuperFresh move their produce onto Mermaid Lane).
I welcome the new merchants to Chestnut Hill. I only ask that they take their private business off our public street. While I realize that the burden of renting storefront space, paying for utilities, signage and advertising might cut into their profits, I don’t see why these individual business people shouldn’t have the same challenges as our existing, long-time “brick-and-mortar” merchants.
If Chestnut Hill residents think this product is so outstanding, they won’t mind paying a little more for it (to cover the rent) when they shop. This is called fair enterprise.
Marc Donahue
Chestnut Hill
Domestic failure
“Quagmire,” a word that we often hear applied to the terrible mess that our President has gotten us into in Iraq, can also be applied to what has happened to much of our domestic policies.
Our Medicare system is in bad shape. Costs are rising rapidly, and many citizens find themselves unable to pay the added-on charges they find after spending time in a hospital.
The “Bush prescription plan,” which offers little to our senior citizens, is so full of paperwork that seniors cannot know what is being offered. Meanwhile, Bush has allowed pharmaceutical firms to continue raising their prices on prescription drugs; thus, in the end, seniors find no help at all. And Medicaid has been so greatly reduced that many in need again find themselves in trouble.
Also, strangely enough, the Canadian government has suggested they will no longer sell prescriptions across the border. (Did our drug firms have something to do with this?)
Millions of our citizens still work for minimum wages, even as they see their everyday needs rising in cost. Many are forced to work at two jobs, yet they aren’t covered for medical benefits.
And Bush allows millions of illegal immigrants to come into the U.S. Many may be working for even less than minimum pay, all to the good of huge farm combines and factories.
A spokesman for the Bush administration recently suggested that “outsourcing jobs may even be a good thing for the U.S.” And so, millions of our jobs are now being filled in China, India, etc. But here, our leaders may have made a big mistake. China and India are now seeking to purchase corporations from the U.S. (Maytag et al).
True, some among us have gained through Bush’s moves: cutting taxes for the wealthiest among us; giving billions to energy firms; subsidies to large farm combines.
In every area where it came between favoring the ordinary citizen and corporations, Bush favored the corporations.
The ill-planned and unnecessary war in Iraq has cost the lives of many of our young men and women, while thousands more are going through life crippled. Again, the only ones gaining in Iraq are firms like Halliburton. Meanwhile the true danger to us, Osama bin Laden, roams free somewhere. Had we used all of our efforts to catch him, rather than fight a “two-front war,” we might have seen a peaceful period. Remember, there were no terrorists in Iraq before we went to war there.
Mr. Bush has acted through all this as if he were the CEO of a corporation. But when we learn the horrible deficits that he has brought about, his term in office might be shortened.
Gerald Samkofsky
Chestnut Hill
Delighted
As near neighbors, we are delighted to have garden fresh fruits, vegetables and specialty cheeses available on Winston Road on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We are glad for the opportunity to have easy access to excellent, genuinely fresh produce here at the bottom of the Hill. We are also happy to support local farmers.
We also have nothing but praise for the wise placement of the stands. We are happy that traffic, which tends to go much too fast down Winston Road, might slow down a little. A recent letter-writer to the Local complained about having his route changed; he might like to know that several drivers regularly prefer following the new Saturday morning route to turn left on Germantown Avenue from Mermaid Lane because the sight lines up the Avenue are better.
Barbara Bloom
Robert Rossman
Chestnut Hill
Healer needed
We sent the following letter to Senator Specter relating to the Supreme Court appointment(s) that are current and soon to happen. We believe that these are crucial decisions about which all citizens must have their voices heard.
Hon. Sen. Specter:
As your constituents we would like to express our deep concern about how the next Supreme Court Justice is chosen and consented to by the Senate. We know that the Senate Judiciary Committee is crucial to that process. Therefore, we would like to express our concerns about the criteria to be used in that process. For us the most important criterion is that the person chosen is to be a healer and unifier of the society. We therefore encourage the nomination and choice of a person who has a proven record as a judge and has shown moderate opinions on the issues likely to come up before the court. This is an opportunity for President Bush to bring the country together on those issues that are currently dividing us and tearing the nation apart.
We encourage all citizens to pay attention to the nominee because that person’s decisions could change the character of the nation and the Court. Above all, there should be bi-partisan agreement on the appointment and all pertinent information about the nominee must be made public and examined closely.
The issues that we believe are especially divisive and need non-dogmatic and bipartisan attention are: the separation of church and state, women’s health and reproductive rights and civil rights. Government on all levels must remain neutral in matters of faith, honoring all and favoring or supporting none. Women must have the right to receive the most appropriate health and reproductive care. The wounds of past ethnic intolerance and injustice must be healed.
Citizens and the Senate must take the well being of our over 225-year-old democratic and faith neutral society into account when deciding issues of grave national importance, such as appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. We urge you to remain the symbol of honesty and moderation in your deliberations on these matters.
Thank you for your attention.
Shoshana Bricklin and Bert Schultz
Chestnut Hill
